Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-23-2025

Abstract

Burnout is a pandemic and costly public health problem. Studies link leadership and peer behavior to burnout, but explanations are constrained to proximate mechanisms. Evolutionary models describe depression as an ancient appeasement response to avert dangerous physical conflict with higher-ranking group members and coalitions. In turn, psychometric research consistently finds high construct overlap between burnout and depression. This shared phenomenology suggests that burnout in response to workplace social stressors reflects appeasement. The purpose of the current study is to test the relationship between rank and competition related variables and burnout.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-025-00267-4

Comments

Originally published as:

Garcia, H.A., Reiss, J.J. & Garza, R. Why Jerk Bosses Stress Us: Burnout as an Evolved Appeasement Strategy. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 11, 14 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-025-00267-4

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